Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Gertie's coat sew along marathon week: DAY 2

I wanted to thank the ladies that commented on day 1 and admitted they fell off the sew-along-wagon... I hope you'll get back in the train because it is worth it! You can even take a very slow one, because the reward will feel pretty good! Since deciding to start this marathon, I got so much done on my coat! It was just the right pinch I needed!

But, back to business! Today is day TWO! It is the post about all the crazy handstitching: the lapels, the rest of the coat, the collar and the seams! I have NEVER done so much of it!

No tailor ham around, so I improvised. I actually find it very relaxing to handstitch in front of a movie or TV series.

Here, you have both lapels that have just been steamed. With a close up, you'd see that the little green things on the    grosgrain are crocodiles! I will have hidden crocodiles on my coat!

Other pieces for which I handstitched the interfacing. At that point, I started to become annoyed...

Catstitching of ALL the seams! When I say all, I really mean all... It's crazy work, but so much worth it!


I haven't documented those steps as much as the others because they lasted weeks and weeks. That is mainly why you only have the end results here. But I have more for tomorrow! Day 3 will be about the pockets, the sleeves, and putting everything together!

Blog to you tomorrow ;)

4 comments:

  1. What an amazing job you are doing! Its all about patience... I've just done all of these steps on my cashmere wool jacket, but I love hand sewing.... I find it relaxing, minus time constraints I'm facing with the deadlines at school of course.

    I can't wait to see more and as my teacher always tells us "Happy stitching!"

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  2. Hi Laurwyn, may I ask you, what kind of material did you use for the interfacing you handstitched? So far I´ve only worked with iron-on interfacing, and I´ve never heard of the "horsehair" Gertie mentions in our country... Is there some other name for this, or could you use different materials? Thanks, Jana

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  3. Hi Janul,
    It is also called hair canvas, and a well known brand is "Hymo".
    I usually ask advice in my sewing shop about it, but very few seem to have some because everyone like fusible interfacing more (in The Netherlands, people like efficiency and don't like to do extra things, which I find a bit sad).

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  4. Thank you! It´s not very common where I live either, so I´m afraid our local shop won´t have this material. And I should probably ask some professional seamstress here how is it called in czech :).

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